Morning
by The Cheez
Summary: Every morning when she was young, Tenten would find herself on the roof of her house watching the sun rise. Many years later, she finds herself on the roof again, trying to recapture a distant memory. Gen. Neji/Tenten friendship. Written for a contest.


Tenten couldn't remember the last time she'd been able to watch the sunrise. The allure of watching the day dawning had spread back to long before she was a genin, when she was in her early years of the academy. Her mother and father had woke her up while it was still dark and, still in her pyjamas, dragged her out of the house. Leading her onto the roof of their house, they instructed her to sit down and close her eyes. She soon discovered, when they told her to open her eyes a few moments later, that their home had one of the best views of the sun rising over the village. Her father then proceeded to describe the rising sun to Tenten and her mother. His description was incredible, as he brought the sunrise to life in Tenten's mind. When her father was killed in the line of duty, Tenten found herself taking over his role in the early hours. Few things brought a smile to her mother's face after her father's passing, and this was one of those things.

When her mother was killed on a mission, Tenten was left in the care of her elderly grandmother until her passing in the year before Tenten graduated from the academy. Tenten had immediately thrown herself into dawn training sessions deep in the woods, to avoid the painful memories associated with seeing the sunrise. After graduation, she was placed on a genin squad under the tutelage of Maito Gai, who was firm believer in early morning training sessions. After discovering Tenten's habit, Gai was ecstatic and insisted on the whole team participating in a similar schedule. It wasn't until several years later that she began to seriously miss the time she had once spent with her parents, and managed to convince Gai to reschedule for later in the morning. She claimed that her "youthfulness" was fading from the ridiculously early starts, and that she needed more sleep in order to rejuvenate it. This had resulted in manly tears, hugs and running off into the sunset – despite the fact that it was early in the morning – from both Lee and Gai, and a raised eyebrow from Neji. Her sparring partner complied with her ridiculous-sounding request for a time, but insisted on resuming their former training hours when he came of age and was forced to take on more duties within the clan.

Tenten was exhausted. On top of a difficult practice that morning, she had been dragged – thanks to a very remorseful Hinata – on a shopping trip with the girls. If that wasn't bad enough, Ino and Sakura had insisted upon using her as their dress-up doll, hauling her from store to store and forcing her to try on almost every combination of every clothing item in her size. And when she finally convinced them to stop for lunch, she had to endure the obnoxiously long rants by the aforementioned girls about their lacklustre love lives and sympathetic gazes from Hinata while she picked at her meal. It was late by the time she got home, laden with bags full of clothes that she "had to have". When it came to clothes, she far preferred practicality over prettiness. That, apparently, was heresy to the two fashion-conscious kunoichi. Tenten knew that she was never going to be used for seduction missions – she was a battle kunoichi. What was the point of keeping up with expensive fashions, when you could spend your hard earned money on weapons?

After dumping the bags in a corner, she collapsed face-first into bed. She would sort out the heinous waste of money – and figure out how much of it she could return – later. Now, she needed to get a good night's sleep before training with Neji in the morning. Hinata had warned her of her father's intention to meet with Neji early in the morning. That, of course, meant that he would quite possibly be in a bad mood by the time he arrived at the training grounds, and would likely try to take his frustrations out on her. Hiashi had begun pressuring him to marry and start producing heirs soon, complete with threats of arranged marriages. Neji would not relish being lectured by his uncle so early in the morning. Neji in a bad mood was a force to be reckoned with, and Tenten wondered if she'd be able to distract him from his worries so that she could leave the sparring session intact. Thoughts of her white-eyed sparring partner soon had her drifting off to sleep.

Sharp rapping on her window brought Tenten to awareness. A glance at her alarm clock showed it to be just before 6. She had forgotten to set her alarm, she realised as she looked back at the window to see her teammate, and she was very late. He looked absolutely furious. There was no way she wanted to spar with him now. She climbed out of bed with a sigh and padded over to the window. Pushing it open just far enough that he could hear her, she said, "I'm going to watch the sunrise. You're welcome to join me if you wish," before quickly pulling it closed. Tenten pulled on a robe, and then left the room. She imagined that Neji would have looked very bewildered in that moment, but she didn't stop to check. Instead, she walked out the front door and, using chakra, climbed onto the roof.

She had been reclining on the roof for about ten minutes when the nearly indiscernible footsteps of her sparring partner approached her. He sat down next to her without a word, closed his eyes and began to meditate. Realising that Neji would miss the sunrise if he continued, Tenten spoke.

"Would you like me to describe the sunrise to you?"

Neji's eyes shot open, startled. Tenten doubted that anyone had ever offered to describe anything to him before. As a Hyuuga, he had been raised to understand that sight was knowledge, and knowledge is power. They believed that without sight, one had nothing. When they were in the academy, Lee had stupidly asked him about everyone else – those without Byakugan. Neji had responded with, "That is the reason why the Hyuuga Clan is the most powerful clan in Konoha. That is the reason why we are above everyone else. Sight is power, and we see everything."

Tenten smiled at the alarmed expression on her teammate's face. It was clear to her that he didn't understand how he could be shown something without seeing it. "Close your eyes, Neji."

Neji closed his eyes again with an obvious reluctance. Placing her hand on his shoulder, she spoke to him again soothingly, "Trust me, nothing will harm you here."

Neji's muscles tensed under her hand then relaxed. When it became clear to Tenten that he had calmed himself enough to resume meditating, she began to recall her father's favourite description of the rising sun.

"It is the first thing to pierce the darkness, carrying with it the torch of a new day. You don't see it at first, it is nothing but a small warm, rosy glow, completely humble compared to the magnificence of Amaterasu-sama.

But the newborn phoenix sun starts to shake off the ash from its soft down, and you start to see the bright red scarlet of the morning. There is a moment - a pause - before it cries out its song and takes flight, spilling golden light upon the plains, across the hills and into the Village, penetrating the deepest of forests in the training grounds, and scaling to the top of Hokage Mountain.

As the sun rises, the sky becomes a glorious shade of blue, breaking through from the darker purples from the night. As these darker colours fade away, Amaterasu-sama takes her mighty position at the top of the sky shining so very blindingly beautiful."

Tenten rested back on her elbows as she finished her description and continued to watch the sunrise in silence. Soon enough, she began to feel the weight of Neji's stare. She turned, only to catch a glimpse of his startled expression before he looked away, the slightest hint of a blush appearing on his pale skin. Tenten averted her eyes with a smile – it wasn't often that she was able to catch her stoic teammate feeling embarrassed about anything.

Several minutes of silence passed before Neji finally cleared his throat.

"Is that how you see the world, Tenten?"

She nodded. The pair continued to sit in silence as the village began to come to life.

"Perhaps," Neji paused, seeming lost for words, "you could show me your world again sometime."

"I would love to," Tenten smiled, and rose to her feet, "Shall we go train?"

"Aa."


End file.
